YOLO= you only live once (Jenni's contribution to the name of this blog) Elder Brown is only living once (for 2 years) in the beautiful West Indies, sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with the good people there.

Monday, August 18, 2014

There's always some sunshine after the rain

I will be lying if I said this week hasn't been tough. It's been really hot and lots of people avoiding us or not wanting to go teaching with us. We have had to take some water breaks a few times this week. Saturdays and Sundays can be the hardest. Everyone just wants to party those days. Not many people are keeping commitments and people want to be baptized or so they say and they aren't willing to do anything to change. Things can be really tough. A lot of members aren't really giving me a chance because they like the old missionaries better but I am still loving them. Top it all off my dog Libby died. Sometimes you feel like Job in the Old Testament. Things fall apart and there isn't much that you can do about it. Just gotta hold onto the faith and know things are going to get better. A scripture that has really helped me that just came to mind is 1 Nephi 20:10 "For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Sometimes we have to go through hard things so that God can mold us to be what he wants us to be. Many of the greatest prophets went through much hardship like Abraham or even Joseph Smith. I know my situation is not as bad as them but sometimes it can be hard to catch a break. The thing you gotta remember is not to give up. Do not give up. Heavenly Father will bless you so much more if you just keep going. Well lets get on with some good news. One of my MTC companions emailed me and told me that one of the investigators I loved so much back in my first area just got baptized! I am sad I couldn't be there but I am so proud of him changing his life and coming unto Christ. We have been invited to flood the mission with the Book of Mormon and start really to just contact with it. I have seen some blessings as I have done that. It is really neat. Some crazy people want it but there have been some people who have been told bad things about the church and they were curious. We have set up appointments and hope to have a good talk with them. Elder Cox and I had a great application of his training in this week. We learned about teaching people not lessons. We met a pretty cool guy this week named Deli and instead of jumping in and telling him all about the Restoration we were able to discern his needs. He really wants to repent and we taught him about that. He is really excited to meet with us again this week. We are hoping for a better week and just gotta keep smiling. We teach people how to be happy and not just have fun which is temporary such as drinking and smoking. The Gospel is an everlasting joy. In a few weeks we will be seeing Elder Claudio D. Zivic of the Seventy in Barbados. It's going to be broadcast through the mission and us and a few islands actually get to be there. I can't wait to see him next month! Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from everyone next week. I gotta be honest this is like the only picture I took this week. I caught a chick from it's mom. Chickens are funny.